Protective gear for fire fighters usually comprise a helmet, heavy protective turnout coat, some form of upper leg protection which produces similar protective characteristics as the coat, boots and gloves. The fire fighter is required to wear such heavy protective equipment to insulate himself from the structural fire with which he is engaged. The environmental conditions which fire fighters encounter in suppressing a fire produce abnormal exposures which can produce an extraordinary number of potentially injuring situations. The fire fighter is exposed to intense heat, smoke, and moisture, and such environmental conditions are compounded by the general character of the ambient weather conditions, e.g. extreme cold or extreme heat. The fire fighters protective outer garment is primarily designed to shed water and to thermally insulate the fire fighter from the extraordinary heat associated with his fire suppression activity as well as protect him from the ambient weather conditions.
The protective garments presently worn by the fire fighter are comprised of an outer shell of extremely tough fabric for protection, a moisture barrier which serves primarily to shed water and an internal thermal liner. Often time, in hot weather, fire fighters remove the thermal insulating liner of the protective coat for comfort when they are not involved in active fire suppression activity and then don the outer shell absent the liner when called to duty. The fire fighter thereupon has no thermal insulation to protect him from the fire environment and because of the design of the protective garment, there is no visual means by which a superior officer can easily discern whether or not the liner is incorporated in the protective garment. Additionally, because of the environment in which the fire fighter must perform and the physical activity which he must perform, enormous amounts of moisture are generated by the fire fighter's body and such moisture gathers within the thermal insulating liner. Consequently, if the fire fighter is required to respond to a subsequent fire with only a short duration between a first response, the fire fighter finds himself wearing an uncomfortably cold and moisture saturated protective garment. The use of an uncomfortably cold and moisture saturated protective garment has a substantial deleterious effect on the fire fighter both physically and psychologically since it enhances an already abnormal environment in fighting the fire and can physically result in illness to the fire fighter. In addition, relevant industry regulations now require that the thermal liner be physically secured to the outer protective shell so as to prevent fire fighters from removing the liner and possibly subjecting themselves to physical harm in the fighting of a fire with no thermal insulation. While this mandate ensures that the fire fighter will have the benefit of the thermal liner insulation, it precipitated the problem of cleaning and drying of the thermal liner.
As a result of such a mandate, the fire fighter's supervisor is ensured that when he responds to an alarm, the firefighter will have a protective garment containing a thermal liner, however, the mandate also ensures that if the fire fighter must respond to several alarms with little duration between responses, he will be responding to all subsequent alarms with a protective garment having a moisture laden thermal liner.
Additionally, it is desirable from the fire fighters point of view to maintain the protective garment in a state of readiness by constant cleaning protocols. The outer shell is designed primarily to shed water and as such, cleaning is usually perfected by a scrub down and hosing. However, it is desirable to thoroughly wash and dry the thermal liner and if the thermal liner is not removably secured to the outer shell it is not capable of being cleaned by conventional means.
Still further, safety considerations dictate that the outer garment provide the necessary protective characteristics from the neck of the garment to its base. As such, the means for securing the thermal liner within the outer protective garment and the means for securing the outer protective garment itself must be designed so that the fastening means is protected and shielded from the outer environmental conditions by the outer shell.